A web-based edition of early seventeenth-century political poetry from manuscript sources. It brings into the public domain over 350 poems, many of which have never before been published.
H18 from Cathernes docke theer launcht A pritty Pinke
Notes. This poem appears to be an adaptation and extension of a libel originally written around the time of the marriage of Robert Carr and Frances Howard in December 1613 (see “From Katherins dock there launcht a pinke”). Like other poems, this libel depicts Frances Howard’s alleged sexual transgressions through an extended series of puns based on the organizing metaphor of the Countess as a leaky, wandering boat. Bellany (Politics 155, 175) discusses this 1615 version of the poem in his analyses of representations of Frances Howard, Robert Carr and Sir Thomas Overbury.
“On the Countess of Sommersett”
from Cathernes docke1 theer launcht a pritty Pinke2
Leake3 she did often, butt did never sinke,
in falling downe to Essex4 pleasant shore
long she exspected rigging, and yards5 store
but out of hope theer to obteine content
5with wind in Poope,6 away she flyes for Kent
and faine she would att Rochester7 cast anchor
but hideous dangers, and chill feares much blank her
beside to Cross good Canterburyes8 house
and London9 too, did cross the Ocean lawes
10yet winchester averd she might, and Ely10
by scriptum est11 would prove itt, did not he ly
well wheer she would be, they tow tugd her thether
Maugre12 the sea, the Tide, the winde, the wether,
them Som-are-sett13 to Caulke, and fresh her beake14
15make yare15 her geare16 new yard17 her, stop her leake
and bravly furnisht now with all munition
to sea she goes upon an expedition
her Canvas spreading, when she was inclind too
up she would fetch, whome ere she had a mind too
20clap him a boord, take the best things he had
and in exchang give him some oreworne bad18
Manny a Gallant Top, foreyard, and mast19
her rude incounters layde in helpless wast
and now her beake comaunds what ere she please
25without controule even over all the seas,
in triumph thus she revels, till debate
arose betweene his master and his mate20
the Pinke was tender sided and unsteady21
att every Gust to turne her keele22 up ready
30the mate diserning that, did sore distast her
his thoughts, her faults, discovers to the Master
forwarning him such tempest weer a bruing
as not to leave her brought apparant ruine
the master wholly on his Pinke enamour’d
35into his head could have no councell hamerd
still he would keepe her, like her, love her best
but doth in hart his honnest Mate detest
consults with his belov’d, a fitt time watches
when by a tricke they clapt him under hatches23
40wheer fed with art composed Tart24 he lay
tell att A port hole25 he was made away
thus, Over-bury-ed26 head and eares in water
wast not great pitty she should act this slaughter
this Treacherous practise Neptune27 winnowed out
45and vowed Just vengance all the seas aboute
the grudging winds with angry murmer swell
and sad disasters in blacke Stormes fortell
no rest, no refuge the proude Pinke wude have
tost, tumbled, rumbled on the boysterous wave
50her ends, her frends prevailes not, nor her prayers
up she was cast att the black fryers stayres28
wher in requitall of his former Jadeing29
ransackt and rifled, mard & bard from trading
on Ground she sitts, and tho as yett she splitts not
55crackt and halfe rackt, for sea againe shees fitt not
nay though her owners safly of should wind her
no man a live would ever venture in her
but her deare master close unto a mountaine
was driven A shore nigh Ignoramus fountaine30
60from whence the stormes increasing, fury strooke him
downe to a Moore31 wher now you may goe looke him.
Source. Huntington MS HM 198, 1.19-21
Other known sources. “Poems from a Seventeenth-Century Manuscript” 74; Bodleian Rawl. Poet. 84, fol. 68r
H18
1 Cathernes docke: a multi-layered pun, this refers both to St. Catherine’s dock on the river Thames in London, an area of town Lindley (118) notes was “notorious for brewhouses and taverns, and therefore a haunt of prostitutes”, and to Frances Howard’s mother, Catherine Howard, Countess of Suffolk, from whose “dock, rump or vagina”, Frances was born (launched). <back>
3 Leake: leakiness was a common metaphor for female sexual insatiability, and lack of bodily control. <back>
4 Essex: Frances Howard’s first husband, Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex; and the English county. <back>
5 yards: a bawdy pun, yard being both a spar on a ship’s mast and common slang for penis. <back>
6 wind in Poope: literally with wind blowing astern the boat, but probably with bawdy innuendo here. <back>
7 Rochester: both the town in Kent, and Robert Carr, Viscount Rochester since 1611. <back>
8 Canterburyes: George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had opposed the Essex nullity in 1613. <back>
9 London: John King, Bishop of London, who had opposed the Essex nullity in 1613. <back>
10 winchester...Ely: Thomas Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, and Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Ely; both bishops voted to grant Frances Howard a nullity. <back>
11 scriptum est: literally, it is written; here refers to the Bishop of Ely’s claim to find legal warrant to justify the nullity. <back>
12 Maugre: in spite of. <back>
13 Some-are-sett: some are set; and Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset. <back>
14 beake: projection from the prow of a ship. <back>
15 make yare: make ready. <back>
16 geare: a bawdy pun; gear could mean both equipment and genitals. <back>
17 yard: a bawdy pun; yard could mean both a spar for a mast and a penis. <back>
18 some oreworne bad: syphilis. <back>
19 Top, foreyard, and mast: all parts of a ship; all standing in here as bawdy puns for the men Frances Howard has seduced and conquered. <back>
20 master and his mate: the master of the ship is Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset; his mate, Sir Thomas Overbury. <back>
21 tender sided and unsteady: in nautical terms, the boat had weak timbers on its sides and sailed unsteadily; in sexual terms, Frances Howard was promiscuous and uncontrolled. <back>
22 keele: in nautical terms, the timber on the underside of a boat; in sexual terms, the underside of Frances Howard’s body. <back>
23 tricke...under hatches: Carr was alleged to have engineered Overbury’s imprisonment in 1613 by tricking him into refusing a royal order to assume an ambassadorship. <back>
24 art composed Tart: the murderers sent the imprisoned Overbury tarts laced with poison. <back>
25 att A port-hole: Overbury was allegedly finished off by a poisoned enema—the port-hole here is his anus. <back>
26 Over-bury-ed: overburied. This pun on Overbury’s name was quite widely made at the time. <back>
27 Neptune: god of the sea, and here probably flattering James I as the discoverer of the truth surrounding Overbury’s death. <back>
28 black fryers stayres: stairs down to the Thames in London. Before being sent to the Tower, Frances Howard was placed under house arrest in the Blackfriars district. <back>
29 Jadeing: jading, playing the jade; and here probably meaning sexual promiscuity. <back>
30 Ignoramus fountaine: the meaning of this is not entirely clear. After a day confined in his chamber in Whitehall, Carr was moved to house arrest in the residence of the Dean of Westminster, and it may be that the Ignoramus fountain is associated with or near that house. For other possible connotations, however, see “There was an ould ladd rode on an ould padd”, note 21. <back>
31 a Moore: in nautical terms, a mooring place, but alluding here to Carr’s imprisonment in the Tower under the custody of the new Lieutenant, Sir George More. <back>
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